Ill. Judge Halts Policy Conditions DOJ Tied To Safety Grants

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge on Thursday halted the Trump administration's renewed effort to tack allegedly unlawful immigration and other policy-related conditions onto certain public safety grants for sanctuary cities, and blocked the government from enforcing the conditions while two cities' legal challenge plays out.

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ICE Facility Suit Could Be 'Tightened Up,' Ill. Judge Says

By Lauraann Wood

An Illinois federal judge urged immigrant detainees on Thursday to give "serious consideration" to streamlining their complaint over a Chicago-area holding facility's allegedly inhumane conditions, saying "there's something to" the government's argument that their current pleading is too long to advance.

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Trump Admin Open To Settling Ill. National Guard Case

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge agreed to stay forthcoming deadlines in a suit over the deployment of National Guard troops to Illinois, with the parties exploring a possible settlement after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled President Donald Trump can't federalize the Guard to aid in immigration enforcement.

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PTAB Denials, Reexams & New Patent Suits Rose In 2025

By Theresa Schliep

The volume of Patent Trial and Appeal Board petitions dropped last year, while requests for ex parte reexaminations surged with a 66% increase from those in 2024, according to a new report from Unified Patents.

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Trump Admin Defies Funding K-12 Mental Health Grants

By Mark Payne

The Trump administration is fighting an effort by a coalition of U.S. states to preserve at least six months of funding for K-12 mental health grants meant to help students process gun violence, arguing that an earlier court ruling doesn't require the feds to fund the grants.

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Ill. Biz Owner Gets 6 Years For $55M Bank Scams, PPP Fraud

By Emilie Ruscoe

An Illinois businessman has been sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to pay over $23.3 million in restitution in connection with claims that he defrauded banks through applications for commercial loans, lines of credit and the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program.

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Dems Push SEC To Pursue Crypto Case Against Justin Sun

By Aislinn Keely

Three House Democrats on Thursday pressed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to reinvigorate its paused enforcement case against Tron founder Justin Sun and address their concerns that the agency's wave of crypto case dismissals coincided with considerable industry donations to President Donald Trump.

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Brief

Ambulance Co. Will Pay $225K To Settle OT Suit

By Benjamin Morse

An Illinois ambulance services company will pay $225,000 to end a suit alleging it violated wage law by only paying employees overtime when they worked more than 80 hours in a two-week period, according to a federal judge's order approving the deal.

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7th Circ. Backs $22M Restitution For Convicted Fraudster

By Celeste Bott

The Seventh Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a lower court's order that a man convicted of a fraudulent investment scheme causing investors to lose roughly $23 million must fork over $21.6 million in restitution, finding he had waived his challenge to the amount the district judge credited for what had already been recovered.

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Algorithmic Bias Risks Remain For Employers After AI Order

A recent executive order articulates a federal preference for a minimally burdensome approach to artificial intelligence regulation, but it doesn't eliminate employers' central compliance challenge or exposure when using AI tools, say Marjorie Soto Garcia and Joseph Mulherin at McDermott, and Candice Rosevear at Peregrine Economics.

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4 Ways GCs Can Manage Growing Service Of Process Volume

As automation and arbitration increase the volume of legal filings, in-house counsel must build scalable service of process systems that strengthen corporate governance and manage risk in real time, says Paul Mathews at Corporation Service Co.

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Series

Fly-Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Much like skilled attorneys, the best anglers prize preparation, presentation and patience while respecting their adversaries — both human and trout, says Rob Braverman at Braverman Greenspun.

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As Goldstein Trial Begins, Gov't Points To 'Lavish' Lifestyle

By Jared Foretek

An accountant for billionaire investor Alec Gores said that Thomas Goldstein had suggested he open a foreign account for Gores' poker-related transactions or even classify him as a professional player for tax purposes, although Gores was just getting started in the high-stakes poker world.

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Simpson Thacher Offers Stipend To Lure Summer Associates

By Tracey Read

In an effort for Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP to attract top students who want to pursue public interest work, the firm said it will pay a stipend of $42,500 for the 2026-2027 cycle for those who opt to spend their 1L summer in a qualifying public service, government, academic, in-house legal or nonprofit role.

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Calif. Justices Order Prosecutors To Explain Alleged AI Errors

By Dorothy Atkins

The California Supreme Court has ordered Nevada County prosecutors to explain to a lower court why they shouldn't be sanctioned for "apparent serial submission" of artificial intelligence-generated briefs with nonexistent legal citations in multiple criminal proceedings.

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Judiciary AI Rule Draws Fire As Judges Get Deepfakes Survey

By Jeff Overley

Federal judiciary policymakers heard extensive concerns Thursday regarding high-profile plans to formally screen evidence generated with artificial intelligence, and they set the stage for more feedback by preparing an AI survey for every federal trial judge.

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ICE Detention Facilities Nearly Doubled Last Year, Report Says

By Tom Lotshaw

An American Immigration Council report said the Trump administration detained record numbers of noncitizens last year, most without criminal records, and held them in a rapidly expanding network of facilities that could soon rival the federal criminal prison system.

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Fla. High Court Opens Door To Non-ABA Accrediting Entities

By Carolina Bolado

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday changed the bar exam admission requirements to allow graduates of law schools accredited by entities other than the American Bar Association to sit for the Florida bar exam.

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5th Circ. Revives Allstate's Fraud Suit Over Car Crash Billing

By Gina Kim

The Fifth Circuit on Wednesday revived Allstate's racketeering suit alleging doctors and personal injury lawyers unleashed a barrage of unnecessary treatments for car accident patients and caused Allstate to pay $4.7 million in claims, finding the insurer sufficiently pled details about the conspiracy and specifics surrounding each allegedly fake medical billing.

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Sens. Advance Indiana Judge Nominee Grilled Over Sermons

By Courtney Bublé

A federal judicial nominee for Indiana who came under scrutiny by a Republican senator for his past sermons as an ordained elder was voted out of committee Thursday alongside five other judicial nominees.

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Trump US Atty Pick In NM Bumped To First Assistant

By Emily Sawicki

A New Mexico federal judge has ruled the Trump-appointed interim U.S. Attorney for New Mexico is not validly serving in the role but declined to disqualify the prosecutor from a slate of cases pending in the district, instead determining the lawyer may continue to work in the federal prosecutor's office as first assistant.

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Wash. Judges To Pick US Atty As Floyd's Term Set To Expire

By Gina Kim

The chief judge for the Western District of Washington on Wednesday announced the court's intent to select a U.S. attorney to serve on a temporary basis if President Donald Trump's pick, Charles Neil Floyd, who has been serving on an interim basis, isn't confirmed by the Senate by next month. 

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